The War

More musings of a meandering mind belonging to a soul on his journey toward home: Or the upward call of Him who is drawing me there. Late at night when sleep evades captivity.

The war that is common to all Christians is an internal struggle, not against flesh and blood, as the Apostle Paul describes in Ephesians chap. 6. It is a war between the flesh(earthly desires) and the quickened spirit. The believing soul, from regeneration onward, is divided into two continually warring parts. For insofar as it is ruled and governed by God’s Spirit, it has a love and yearning for immortality which leads and provokes it to righteousness, purity and holiness Therefore its sole thought is for the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, and it wholly longs for fellowship with God.

But insofar as it retains its natural inclinations, it’s mired in the earth’s slime, entangled in evil desires, and does not know what to aim for or where true happiness lies. It is held captive by sin and is turned away from God and His righteousness.

This produces conflict which greatly tries the believer throughout our life, because we are raised high by the Spirit but brought low by the flesh. In the Spirit we yearn fervently for immortality; in the flesh we turn aside into the path of death. In the Spirit we purpose to live uprightly; in the flesh we are tempted to do evil. In the Spirit we are led to God; in the flesh we are beaten back. In the Spirit we despise the world’s treasures; in the flesh we long for worldly pleasures.

This is no idle speculation divorced from our experience of life; it is a practical biblical doctrine whose truth we experience for ourselves if we are God’s children in Christ. And it’s one described so succinctly by the Apostle in Romans 7:14-25.